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Category: 300 Word Memories

Earlier today it became known to me, through the expertise of John Taylor Gatto that decades ago Harvard used to require students in the liberal arts department to write 300 word passages in order to hone their writing skills. The effect of this was phenomenal, and was noted years after this particular generation of graduates made their way into the workforce.

Gatto noted that those individual students who were exposed to such an idea and who were urged to execute it correctly found growth as writers that nobody could have even fathomed.

In small part, this idea can be corroborated by me, to a certain extent, through my work in reviewing books.

Nigh three years ago my skillset in writing reviews was average at best. Although this fact was known to me, it didn’t deter me to attempt to grow as a writer/reviewer at the time. Naturally, the only option that seemed reasonable at the time was to write more, and do more reviews. At the time, admittedly, it seemed rather simplistic. However, we all know how much we learned by doing, so it didn’t seem like it was such a bad idea.

Now, a handful of years later, it’s been quite the journey in being able to grow as a writer/blogger in many ways and be able to relate my ideas in a much more incisive and cogent fashion. Realizing this a few months ago, it was rather inspiring because, having seen a few of my older reviews, it became quite apparent that not only my suspicion of my work being ‘so-so’ of the past correct, but my suspicion of growth through using the mirror of time – the past – also helped me glean some satisfaction in the fact that the hard work was paying off, even if at times it seems rather sluggish.

Having gone through this mental growth-spurt of sorts, am appreciative of having this obstacle be in my path, and in choosing to make it an opportunity for a jump off point, because it’s helped me grow in more ways than would have seemed possible in the past.

In any case, may the next obstacle opportunity on my path be sizeable, because the growth experienced from immense obstacles opportunities is much greater than that experience gained from smaller ones.

May you always be ironclad in your passions, and relentless in your resolve.

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